Why Information Refuses to Be Controlled

We’re living through an era of information disruption. Novel technologies like AI and social media are unleashing pent-up social and political energies—releasing floods of new information and triggering intense battles for narrative control. While most analysts focus on small pieces of this puzzle, Alicia Wanless is a pioneering “information ecologist” who seeks to map the entire system. Her new book is The Information Animal: Humans, Technology, and The Competition for Reality. In a lively new episode of The World Unpacked, Alicia and host Jon Bateman discuss what 2025 has in common with 1625, how novels spark civil wars, and why our frantic efforts to tame information often do more harm than good. Find the episode transcript and streaming audio, and get the show direct to your inbox, here: Follow Jon on X:

You can listen to Why Information Refuses to Be Controlled online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Why Information Refuses to Be Controlled is an episode from DiploPod by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This episode is 00:43:12 long.

This episode was published on Nov 14, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from DiploPod when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.